This spring, we discuss how Wesleyan-Holiness theology might help us engage with others in a Christ-like way — even in situations of disagreement or conflict. Have a question you’d like us to ask? Please send it to editor@pointloma.edu for consideration.
Viewpoint: As a Nazarene institution, PLNU is part of the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. John Wesley talked about the “via media” or “middle way.” Can you explain what that means and how it might be relevant for us today?
President Fulcher: [The via media] is really about maintaining faithful tensions. It’s about seeking wholeness and the integration of those things that God created to be together. Jesus held truth and grace together in the way he engaged with people. Sometimes we emphasize truth so much that we’re very ungraceful, or sometimes we emphasize grace so much that it becomes a kind of license. And neither of those things are actually the way Christ modeled it.
The via media has been redefined by some people as kind of a compromise or tolerance. But what Wesley was really talking about was digging in, doing the hard work of finding the truth and recognizing that oftentimes in polarized issues, both sides are hanging on to some of the truth and then adding distortions around it in order for it to be a complete thought. It’s not that the truth necessarily lies somewhere in the middle, but he would [advocate for] pulling out what’s true from both sides, holding them together, and then letting go of what’s a distortion.
“It’s a theological conviction that leads to being deeply rooted in Christ while doing the hard work of discernment, even when it costs something.”
So the idea of the via media or maintaining faithful tension doesn’t mean avoiding conflict or splitting the difference. It’s a theological conviction that leads to being deeply rooted in Christ while doing the hard work of discernment, even when it costs something. It’s a different way of engaging than what’s being modeled to us externally. The Wesleyan- Holiness tradition reminds us that we are not only saved from something, but also saved for something: to be formed into Christ-likeness in our thinking, our conversations, and our cultural engagement. And I think it’s something that we have from our tradition that we can offer as a gift to the church, a gift to our students, a gift to the culture of the day.
Viewpoint: What about the concept of discernment? What does that mean in our context, and why could it be important in having better, more Christ-like conversations?
President Fulcher: Discernment — we probably need to define what that is in the context of what Wesley was doing. Discernment is not just intuition or gut feeling; it’s a Spirit-enabled discipline of evaluating ideas and emotions in light of Scripture and the character of Christ. It’s a process of listening carefully for God’s voice in a noisy world and testing every thought against the written Word of God as it bears witness to the incarnate Word of God.
“If we believe that the truth is ultimately grounded in Christ and grounded in Scripture, that becomes kind of a lens or framework from which we explore the world.”
Obviously, Scripture doesn’t talk about every single thing. But when we’re talking theological importance for how we live out our Christian walk, Scripture is our norm. And so taking that and actually testing the ideology that we might be considering or testing the feeling that we might be having or the emotion that we might be expressing, is that Spirit-enabled work of trying to come to the truth that Wesley was talking about.
As an institution of higher education, we are all about studying ideas. And there are all sorts of ideas out there. And so if we believe that the truth is ultimately grounded in Christ and grounded in Scripture, that becomes kind of a lens or framework from which we explore the world. And so all of God’s creation has elements of his handiwork in it, his fingerprints on it. And so truth is there, and we are in the process of pursuing truth. If all truth is God’s truth, then we should not be afraid of asking hard questions and of pursuing different lines of thought as long as we are doing that in the framework and the context of testing every one of those spirits, testing every one of those thoughts through the lens of Christ, through the lens of Scripture in that context.
“Christ modeled a way of engagement that was grounded in truth but always extended in love.”
Viewpoint: What questions might we ask ourselves as we reflect on our role as Christians in an often contentious social context?
President Fulcher: In our current social climate, where outrage often replaces understanding, we have a different calling. Christ modeled a way of engagement that was grounded in truth but always extended in love. So, I think first we have to recognize that all of us are being formed or have been formed. The question is, what’s forming us? Oftentimes, we don’t ask ourselves that question. We become unaware and unintentionally formed by things that we may not have chosen to be formed by if we were aware of what we were doing.
Second, when I am talking with someone, who am I really seeing? Am I seeing someone who is an image bearer of God, one who is worthy of my respect, worthy of me treating them with dignity? Or am I looking at them as a competitor or an adversary, someone to defeat? I think in the context of a polarized culture or a kind of a culture war mentality, we tend to make the other our enemy.
“Am I reflecting the Spirit of God in that engagement, in that interaction, or am I really more reflective of the spirit of the age?”
And then another question is: what am I amplifying? Before I post something on social media or share something that someone else has posted on social media or before I speak or fire off an email or a text or whatever, I need to ask: Am I reflecting the Spirit of God in that engagement, in that interaction, or am I really more reflective of the spirit of the age? What we amplify shapes not only others, but also ourselves. In that sense, every post or comment becomes a small act of spiritual formation for our community and for us.
So those, I think, are critical pieces for us as we think of how we represent Christ to the world and bear witness to Christ in the world. Are we being formed by Christ, or are we being formed by some of these other things? Are we seeing people as Christ sees people, or are we seeing them as some caricature created by our tribe, or worse, as an enemy? And am I actually choosing to amplify the things that would be consistent with Christ or just the things that culture is offering to us?
“Christ calls us to love our enemies. Christ calls us to be slow to anger.”
Christ calls us to love our enemies. Christ calls us to be slow to anger. Christ calls us to treat other people with respect. And so Christ would never call us to use some of the tactics that are being used to defend particular positions. If you can’t defend a conviction with grace and humility, then you are probably not following the model of Christ and probably not operating in the power of the Spirit. The end doesn’t justify the means. I think Christ is more concerned with the way in which we go about doing things. So, if we find ourselves waging war the way the world wages war — using tactics that Christ never modeled — perhaps we should rethink and repent and re-engage in the way of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us.
Viewpoint: Thank you so much, President Fulcher!
